1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the invention relate generally, to the field of computers, and more specifically, to locating a user based on tweet content associated with a location.
2. Prior Art
There is a rise in social networking and micro blogging services, such as Twitter. Millions of users post short messages (“tweets”) to other users of a computer network at different geographical locations. Further, mobile devices allow users to microblog their thoughts about from their current location. For example, a hockey fan at the HP Arena in San Jose, Calif. might create a tweet stating “The Sharks just scored again!” Some tweet metadata includes geotags which identify a location from which a tweet originated.
Advertisers and others seek information about a geographical location of a computer user for various reasons such as targeted advertising and location-based services. An existing technique obtains a user location by determining an IP (Internet Protocol) address. However, IP addresses are unreliable due to masking from VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) and the use of dynamic IP addresses by ISPs (Internet Service Provider) such as AOL (America OnLine). Further, the granularity of location information from an IP address is often not specific enough. Hence, prediction of the location of the user is not accurate in current techniques.
In light of the foregoing discussion, there is a need for a robust method, computer program product and system for locating a user based on a language model built from tweet content associated with a location.